


Omake

by SoSaidTheDragon



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Minor Character Death, Minor Violence, More characters will be added with additional chapters, Sometimes there's romance, but usually it's all slice of life, my babies deserve to be happy, one shot series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-05-23 22:35:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14942645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoSaidTheDragon/pseuds/SoSaidTheDragon
Summary: A collection of slice of life one-shots following various Naruto characters, as well as plenty of original characters.





	1. Oshogatsu (Guy/OC)

**Author's Note:**

> There's no particular order for these one-shots, but they all exist in the same universe.
> 
> They're also found on my tumblr page - SoSaidTheDragon - where I also post the occasional headcanon. If you have a request you'd like to see here or for another fandom, or for whatever reason you just feel like talking to me as if I were a functional human and not an AI fumbling to comprehend reality, by all means, hit me up there.

For three days, Konoha was home to one of the world’s largest New Year’s festivals. Tourists flocked to the village from all over not only the Land of Fire, but other neighboring countries, in order to enjoy the specialty foods and festivities the village had become famous for over the years. Genin decorated homes with beautiful ornaments and strung warm, decorative lights throughout the main thoroughfares, where merchants rented storefronts or opened stalls to ply their wares. 

Mitsume hadn’t been able to attend the festival since her days in the Academy. It seemed fate always conspired to see to it she was away on a mission of one sort or another whenever the holiday came around, returning home in time to see the vendors packing up and genin cleaning trash off the streets. For once, however, she had managed to avoid being saddled with any such mission – largely because Tsunade hadn’t cleared her to return to active duty, but she was free, nonetheless. 

Unexpectedly, Guy was as well. He had actually been given a week long mission to the Land of Waves, however, Kakashi had kindly volunteered to take the escort mission instead, claiming he was going stir crazy after two weeks in the hospital himself. Even Tsunade had realized what he was doing, and once he and Guy – who was sobbing and thanking his rival for his sacrifice – had finally left her office, she had handed Mitsume a few ryo to buy Kakashi some sweets for his return, since he would have to leave before the festival actually started. 

The hardest part about getting ready was prying Guy away from his rival, which took not only Mitsume but Lee, Neji, and Naruto - after Lee stopped crying about how beautiful it was for Kakashi to give Guy the opportunity to spend New Years with his loved ones, anyway. She still had the kimono her mother gave her a couple of years ago, the one made of dark purple silk, that she hadn’t yet had an occasion to wear, hanging in a clothing bag in her closet, beside the montsuki hakama Guy tended to forget he owned. She briefly thought about trying to get him to wear it, but it was a bit too formal for a festival, and it was generally not a good idea for Guy to not wear pants in public. 

They had both learned that one the hard way – four years later and they still weren’t allowed back to that restaurant. Or that bath house. 

It was really just better for everyone if he wore his jumpsuit. 

After a fair bit of struggling to get everything to lay properly, she stepped out into the living room, where Guy was waiting. His hands were tucked behind his back, and his cheeks had a suspicious red tint to them – combined with the fact he was staring at his feet told her he was up to something. She would have thought that, after four years together and nearly ten more of him chasing her, he would have gotten over being shy about something as simple as giving her a gift, but he still acted exactly as he had that first time he asked her out in the school yard when they were kids. 

He lifted his eyes briefly, looking her over from toe to head, his tan face growing even darker before his gaze traveled swiftly back to the floor, and his hands suddenly shot forward. Held tightly in one fist was a boquet of flowers, their stems half-crushed by the pressure – anemone, lavender, and forge-me-not blossoms were among the ones she recognized immediately, though there were several more she couldn’t immediately identify. In the other he held a piece of paper, folded into a lover’s knot, or what one looked like after a nervous Might Guy held onto it for too long. 

“Arara,” She drawled in surprise, carefully tugging the items free. “What’s this now?” 

Laying the flowers down on the table, she carefully unfolded the note, revealing the poem on the inside. It didn’t quite look like Guy’s handwriting, mostly because it was actually legible, and there was a wiggling in the lines that almost made it look like he’d been trembling when he wrote it. 

Passionate heart  
Soft touch of a flower  
In its fullest bloom

For a moment, she wracked her brain to try and remember if she had ever heard that particular haiku before, but no author sprang to mind. Curious if he had put the author at the bottom, she unfolded the bottom seam, only for something to tumble out. She caught it without thinking, not quite recognizing the small, round item in her hand by sensation alone, but before she could figure it out, Guy stole all of her attention.

“I wrote that.”

Guy still had his head bowed down, fists clenched and trembling at his sides. He was clearly uncomfortable, eyes screwed up tightly so he wouldn’t accidentally look at her, something he only ever did when he was about to do or say something he was seriously worried someone wouldn’t approve of. 

“Back in the academy,” He continued. “When Joben-sensei asked me to deliver some forms to Keitaro-sensei, I saw a girl, sitting in the front row of his class, and she was so beautiful I forgot what I was supposed to be doing. I didn’t know her name, but I knew the moment I saw her, she was the only one I would ever want to be with. So I promised myself, if I didn’t confess to her the next day, I would do three hundred laps around the school yard, and I wrote that poem intending to give it to her. But I lost my nerve, so while I was running those laps, I promised myself if I didn’t confess the next day, I would do three hundred and ten laps around the school yard.”

She could remember that day clearly, although she never much thought about it. Keitaro-sensei had been droning on, as he so often did, and she had begun to drift off, listing off everything she could be doing that was more worthwhile than listening to Keitaro-sensei’s endless monologue. She hadn’t even noticed an upperclassman had entered the room, until Keitaro-sensei started telling him off for getting distracted, and she only managed to briefly glimpse a boy in a bright green jumpsuit fleeing the room as fast as he could manage. 

“Although I did find the strength to confess, I was never strong enough to give her that poem, not even after she returned my affection. I’ve carried that note in my pocket every day since then, for almost twenty years, trying to work up the nerve. This morning, I made myself a promise that today would be the day I would finally give her that poem.” 

As he finished speaking, she turned her hand upward and looked at the item she had caught. It was a ring, with a band made of silver and gold that swirled together like the marks in a wooden board, with a single, almost flower shaped diamond. Just as she began to comprehend what she was seeing, Guy’s massive hands took hold of hers, and pulled them towards his chest as he dropped onto one knee. He had apparently lost his battle with his tears, because they streamed heavily down his face, though he had finally managed to open his eyes, staring at her with obvious determination. 

“Kedamonoshu Mitsume, please, do me the great honor of saying you’ll marry me.” 

After a little more than a week on the road, Kakashi was relieved to see the familiar skyline of Konoha appear at before him. Hands in his pockets, he slowly made his way towards his apartment, taking every back road he knew of to avoid his students so he could get some much needed rest. This route just so happened to take him past the training grounds his “eternal rival’s” girlfriend often used with her genin squad, and he stopped to watch for a few moments as she put the kids through their paces, much to their displeasure. 

Judging by the sweat, scratches, and general wear and tear, they’d been running drills since early that morning. The fact none of them had collapsed into an exhausted heap begging for a merciful death, however, told him she was probably in a good mood, though her scowl would have made most people think otherwise. She spotted him across the field, and motioned him to come over, something he did with great reluctance and a heavy sigh – he could just keep going, but then she would probably just sick her genin on him, and he’d spend the next week dealing with the little demons annoying him in unfathomable ways. 

Some of his underwear were still pink, and he had yet to find a certain novel from his collection – he suspected it wasn’t so much hidden as one of the boys on her team had taken it and wasn’t about to give it back, but he had yet to figure out which one.

“How was your mission?” She asked conversationally, never taking her eyes off her students. 

“Ah, pretty quiet, actually. We saw a few bandits on the road, but that’s about it. Did you enjoy the festival?” 

“Yeah, it was pretty nice. Guy won a goldfish – we let Lee pick the name.”

“What did he decide?”

“Hire, The Great Hot-Blooded Golden Fish of Konoha.”

He resisted the urge to make a sarcastic comment, and instead just rolled his lips between his teeth and gave a short series of affirmative grunts. She seemed to know exactly what was going through his mind, the corner of her lip twitching as she fought a smile, before she changed the subject, reaching into one of her inner vest pockets. She produced a large but thin boxes, which was wrapped in a bright blue piece of fabric, which was littered with an obnoxious number of cartoon cats. It was tied off with a bright yellow ribbon, and festooned with what he suspected was actually a hair tie, with a plastic white cat face attached to it. 

“Here. Guy made sure we got all your favorites. We even got some specialty dog treats for Pakkun and the other ninken.” 

Absolutely not to his surprise, the jubako itself was also primarily decorated with cats – even less surprising was the fact that nearly every cake and candy had been painstakingly carved or shaped into cat faces or paw prints. Silently contemplating his revenge, he snapped the lid back on the box, tied it back together, and stuck it into his pocket before accepting the three other smaller, plain packages. 

As he did so, he caught a glimmer out of the corner of his eye. Although her focus was on her students, there was no question she had noticed his stare, as the smile she had been resisting finally broke through, tilting the corners of her mouth. Not unexpectedly, this mild display of emotion in front of her students immediately made her uncomfortable, and she slugged him in the arm as she walked towards the trio, who had apparently decided it was time to stand up to their sensei by sitting down.

“By the way, you might want to swing by the bookstore on your way home.”

“What did you do now?”

“I didn’t do anything. Guy, on the other hand, may have gotten wind that the ninja who so kindly gave up the opportunity to enjoy the New Year’s festival for his benefit has a little crush on a certain red-headed employee. He’s gotten it into his head that the best way to thank this kindly ninja for his help is to set the two of them up on a date.”

“You monster.”

“The new year is a time for change, Hatake. Besides – Guy and Lee worked really hard on that banner.”


	2. Fraudulent (Guy/Mitsume)

Tsunade's concerns about the thief Nanafushi were unfounded, at best.

To be completely fair, he probably was a pretty good thief - his henge was perfect, and had he chosen anyone else to imitate, she probably would never have noticed he wasn't who he was pretending to be. He obviously hadn't done his research on his target, however. No one in their right mind would disguise themselves as Might Guy. 

He gave himself away almost immediately, before he even hit the village gates. Not only was he jogging at a leisurely human pace - Guy's version of a jog was to stampede like a rampaging elephant - but he wasn't shouting greetings to Kotetsu and Izumo at the top of his lungs. She might have just shrugged and assumed he was having an off day, maybe challenged Kakashi and got a Thousand Years of Pain for his troubles, but when he walked right by he without so much as a hello, she knew immediately it an impostor.

Guy was physically incapable of walking by her without shouting out a greeting to his "beautiful youthful butterfly", and that was at the absolute bare minimum. Most of the time, if the crossed paths during the day, she would end up in a bone-crushing hug, before being subjected to a series of questions about her day and what she was up to, even if they'd just seen each other an hour earlier. There had never been a time, even back when she was his "adorable youthful kohai", that Guy didn't loudly and eagerly take any opportunity to get her attention. 

This Nanafushi guy was either extremely overconfident in his ability to lie, or a moron. Maybe both.

She probably should just apprehend him. The fact he ignored her presence instead of being drawn to it like a loud, flailing moth to a flame was all the proof she needed to be certain that someone had sneaked into the village in a henge, but the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to teach this impostor a lesson. When Naruto had approached them earlier looking for help dealing with Lee and his dojo, Guy had put on a terrible wig and mustache, and the idiot impostor had apparently not realized that it was a disguise, so he still looked the part. There really wasn't a better way to teach this Nanafushi twit not to mess with the Hidden Leaf than to subject him to Lee when he thought he'd be getting a challenging fight. 

Hopefully the kid didn't break too many bones. Dragging this would-be thief all the way to Tsunade just because his legs were broken sounded like a lot more work than it was worth. 

Nanafushi froze as a pair of arms snaked their way around his waist - he hadn't even felt someone behind him. Whoever it was, however, didn't seem to be hostile, instead laying their palms across his chest as they pressed against his back. From their hands alone, he knew it was a woman, as if the soft swells of what had to be an ample bust pressing against him weren't enough of a clue. 

He hadn't thought this ugly idiot would be able to get a woman to look at him twice - nevermind have one who was so eager to hang all over him. She was probably hideous, he decided, with a big hooked nose and terrible teeth, and a hairy mole right in the middle of her forehead, but he would just have to suck it up and flirt with her until he could get her off his back - metaphorically, and literally. 

"Hey, handsome, where'd you run off to?" The voice in his ear was unexpectedly smooth. "I thought we were going to have some fun."

Carefully prying away from her hands, which seemed determined to grope every inch of his torso, he scrambled to come up with an excuse to avoid the woman's obvious innuendo. He could flirt with a hag, sure, but he wasn't about to suffer through sleeping with her if he could help it. 

To his surprise, however, there was no hideous deformed crone lurking behind him. Instead, he found himself toe to toe with a female shinobi, who looked more like she belonged in a center fold than in active combat. Big, bright eyes, soft lips - nevermind the curves even her shapeless chunin vest couldn't hide. For a moment, he was stunned by the fact that a woman this far out of the Leaf Ninja's league was giving him the time of day, before he managed to formulate a single, coherent thought.

Score.

"Yeah, uh, sorry. Had an emergency to take care of."

Why the hell that green-jumpsuit wearing idiot would leave the village when he had a woman like her trying to get him into bed, Nanafushi would never know. He, however, was more than willing to set aside his mission for a little while - the Leaf's secrets would keep, but this sort of opportunity was once in a lifetime, and it wasn't like he didn't have the time. The moron had said something about the Land of Tea, which was at least a few hours away, even at his inhuman pace. 

"Well it's all sorted now, right?" She asked, as her finger skated from his belly button to his throat in a gentle, teasing line.

"Yeah, yeah of course." 

"Good, because I've been waiting for this all day." She smoothed down his jumpsuit, before grasping a couple of his fingers as she turned and began to walk away.

"Lead the way, beautiful."

He had expected to be brought to a house somewhere in the village, but he wasn't complaining when she led him through a series of alleyways that spat them out at the edge of the woods. She probably didn't want any of her friends to see her bring a guy like him home - he wasn't going to complain, though. The view alone made trekking through the brush worthwhile, and the pay off would be even sweeter. 

"Here we are." 

He almost ran into her when she stopped, focused as he was on the seductive sway of her hips. They had come upon a small wooden cabin, stable enough but obviously constructed by an amateur - smoke poured out of the stone chimney, and from inside, he thought he could hear voices. 

"Uh..." 

He froze - there were definitely voices inside the cabin, one of which was screaming while the other shouted something about a hurricane, before there was a loud thud and more screaming. Upon closer inspection, he noticed a sign on the front wall of the building, which read "Hot Blooded Dojo". Before he could ask why the woman would bring him there, of all places, a blond brat in an orange jumpsuit stumbled outside, looking quite a bit worse for wear. The kid spotted the two of them standing near the edge of the clearing, and immediately made his way over before Nanafushi could get away.

"That's your disguise?" The kid squawked, obviously not amused. "I guess it'll have to do. Now, get in there and challenge him already - I don't think I can take much more."

The woman made no effort to stop the kid from dragging him towards the dojo, following at a leisurely pace. Laying a hand on his shoulder, she leaned up to whisper in his ear as he tried and failed to find purchase in the dirt.

"Just go a few rounds with him. I know he won't be much of a fight, but he's been looking forward to a real challenger for weeks, so try to make it look good, okay?" 

Watching the impostor fight with Lee was about as entertaining as she hoped - that was to say, it was hilarious. Nanafushi may have been a decent ninja, but most chunin couldn't hope to go toe to toe with that genin in taijutsu and win. There were plenty of jonin who probably couldn't manage it either, now that she thought about it, and Nanafushi definitely wasn't a jonin. Even if he didn't have to constantly maintain his henge, it was readily apparent he wasn't all that skilled in combat. 

Idiot. He would certainly think twice the next time he tried to sneak into a village - assuming Ibiki didn't completely crush the poor bastard's spirit. Knowing T&I, however, that wasn't likely, although judging by how badly Lee was trouncing the impostor, Ibiki probably wouldn't have to do much before he was baring his soul. 

Poor, stupid bastard. 

She didn't think it could get any better when the impostor had to beg Naruto to fill in for him - but it definitely did. Believing she wasn't watching, the impostor took the form of Lee instead, and with the timing only Guy could have, he was soundly kicked through another wall and back into the dojo. 

Average ninja didn't stand a chance against Guy's Dynamic Entry, and the impostor was no exception - left unconscious in a pile of broken planks as Naruto, Lee, and Guy tried to figure out what was going on, his henge quickly disappeared. It was definitely the guy Tsunade had asked her to track down, and he definitely wasn't going to be getting back up for a while.

After the four of them delivered the would-be thief to the Hokage, who was not amused to realize one of her jonin had led him around by the nose for an hour rather than apprehend him, they split apart. Naruto ventured off towards his house, while Lee returned to his dojo to fix the multitude of holes in the walls before the local wildlife could get in. That left her and Guy to make their way home together, walking side by side as she contentedly swung their joined hands.

"How did you know he was an impostor?" Guy's deep voice broke the comfortable silence they'd fallen into. "His disguise was perfect - even Kakashi would have fallen for it."

"If he'd picked anyone else, I probably wouldn't have figured it out." She replied breezily, still fondly thinking about watching the impostor get smacked around like a rag doll. "But nobody can imitate Konoha's Sublime Green Beast."


	3. Loss (Mitsume)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While this chapter involves Mitsume, the OC from the Guy/Mitsume chapters, their relationship doesn't feature heavily here, if at all. It's focused on Mitsume's genin squad, so I opted to tag it with her name instead of their relationship - hopefully, that keeps it obvious what "universe" it exists in without giving a false expectation. I'll be doing this with other OC as well as the occasional canon character, where appropriate.

The Chunin Exams had not been easy.

When Nouga had brought up the idea of participating several weeks earlier, Mitsume had been whole-heartedly against it for that exact reason. She had insisted that they weren't ready, that it would be far more of a challenge than they believed, but after enough begging, she had relented. Saburo had thought that she had been exaggerating, particularly following the written exam, which had been so obvious his only concern had been Ohaku's complete lack of confidence.

The Forest of Death, however, had been a different story. Surviving the wilderness was simple enough - they had spent far longer in far less forgiving terrain as Mitsume taught them to track. It was the other ninja who were the problem, which, in a way, was to be expected, but Saburo had not anticipated how severe the skill gap would be. From the moment they entered the gates, they had been hit from all sides, not only by other genin but by their own poor decision making. They had leaped into the fray against the Sound Ninja trio that had cornered Team Kakashi, and although they had managed to push them back alongside Team Asuma and the timely arrival of Rock Lee, they had all been left bruised, beaten and exhausted.

There had been no medical treatment offered to them once they arrived at the tower - they hadn't even been permitted to sleep, because of how late into their allotted five days they had arrived, and instead were thrown into the elimination rounds after only a few minutes of rest. As the rounds began, Mitsume had helped with the worst of their injuries, but she had neither the time or knowledge to do more than wrap their sore joints and tell them to suck it up. By luck, they weren't the only ones completely exhausted - although the only team injured more than them was Team Kakashi, the majority of participants had made it only on the last day as well, and were, if nothing else, obviously exhausted. The only leg up that they had on the competition was that they were reasonably well fed - if Team Kakashi and Team Asuma had been an indication of what the others were taught in regards to survival, they could bank on most of the genin, at least from the Leaf Village, being weak from surviving on the bare minimum.

Squirrel tasted like absolute garbage, but protein was protein.

Nouga was the last of the trio to be called, just after Ino and Sakura knocked one another out. Saburo had lost to the Sand kunoichi, Temari, early on - he could have won, in theory, but he only had one technique that would have gotten past her powerful wind ninjutsu, and using it would have left him without a fallback plan for the finals. It was better, in his opinion, to submit and retry in a few months during the next exam than try to compete when everyone had time to prepare for his strongest technique. Ohaku, on the other hand, had won his fight against Misume Tsurugi. Although it had been a tough fight, Tsurugi was a close range fighter, which made Ohaku the absolute worst opponent for him to be up against - Ohaku was good at putting his opponents at range and keeping them there through a combination of traps and speed, until they were backed into a corner with no way out.

Compared to the match Nouga had been given, their fights had been easy, but Dosu, one of the trio who attacked Team Kakashi, had already proven he was tougher than most. Although they both technically had the advantage of knowing how the other fought, the only real benefit it gave Nouga was knowing that his ability to produce sound would allow him to break her genjutsu, if he even let her use it in the first place, which severely handicapped her. Her ninjutsu and taijutsu weren't bad for a first year genin, but genjutsu was the cornerstone of her style, and her options were cut by more than half without the ability to use it. Up against someone like Naruto or Lee she might have been alright, but the moment the match began, it was obvious the odds weren't in her favor.

Nouga was fast enough to dodge - ever analytical, she had already figured out the range of Dosu's sound attacks, and was able to narrowly skirt around most of them, but that was about all she could do. There was nothing she could do at range that wouldn't be pushed back or knocked off course. Her stamina began to wear thin quickly, and within just a few minutes, the edges of Dosu's attacks began to creep closer, until one finally connected.

It only skimmed her calf. Had it been a regular attack from a kunai, she probably wouldn't have even noticed, but the water in her body echoed the sound waves and her entire leg began to tremble. She was forced to land near the center of the ring, all of her weight on one foot as the other leg rattled violently from her hip to her toes. The fighting paused, then, as Dosu realized his scurrying target couldn't continue the chase, but hesitated to get any closer - to assume she was down and out would be a potentially costly error that he wasn't about to make. Nouga forced herself to put her foot down flat, an act that obviously caused her a great deal of pain, though she only showed the slightest twitch in her features.

Dosu wanted her to attack - it was what Saburo would do, wait until she was distracted by the toss of a kunai to charge in where she was open and strike, but Nouga knew that, too. She wasn't the strongest or fastest among them, but Saburo could say with confidence that she was the smartest. By the time he figured out a problem and found a solution, she had come up with a dozen better ideas. There was no way she was stupid enough to fall for such a simple trap, cornered or not.

Dosu realized that as much as Saburo did. He antagonized her for a few moments, in the hopes he could rile her up, but Nouga had far better control than that. She stared him down, silent, hands at her sides as she waited for his next strike - if he were smart, he'd wait it out, and let her exhaustion and the pain catch up to her, but he overestimated his own strength, and underestimated her. He raised his arm, ready to charge in, and as the kunai went flying at the obvious attack, dodged to the side, ready to land a solid strike.  
Saburo couldn't quite keep up with what happened next. It couldn't have been Dosu that caused the massive strike, which kicked up a cloud of debris - Nouga couldn't have dodged in time, not on her wounded leg, and he wouldn't have missed otherwise. The Sound Ninja reappeared on the far side of the stadium from the chaos, apparently unharmed, but oddly, his scarf appeared to have been severed. 

No, Saburo realized, not cut - a strip had been torn straight through it, by whatever had also scuffed his jacket in a distinct line that traveled towards his leg.

There was an odd sound that echoed from the dust, which had slowly begun to settle - metallic and strange, but familiar, though it took a moment to realize why, as Saburo had only ever associated such a sound with his sensei. The dust cleared more rapidly as the wind around it kicked up and blew it away, to reveal Nouga, still on her feet beside a small crater of broken tile, where her opponent had just been. One end swung in smooth circles at her side, while the other dangled near her feet, drawn straight down by a round, metal weight, which looked far to heavy for her to have such ease in swinging its twin.

He hadn't even known she owned a surujin, never mind that she could use it with that level of skill. If the attack had actually connected, there was no question Dosu would have been crippled, if not killed outright. The speed with which she managed to draw it, alone, was more than enough to make anyone second guess a fight against her - but as impressive as the display was, it spoke volumes about her state.

The fact she had drawn that sort of weapon only reaffirmed she was unable to move - which meant that her overall range with the surujin was also severely limited. She could only attack within the reach of the chain, and their was no way she could maintain that level of destructive force for very long. She didn't want to end the fight quickly - she had to. A ninja of Dosu's skill would easily be able to pick up on the blood in the water.

And he had. The ninja moved in a wide circle around her, just beyond the reach of the chain. Large plumes of debris followed whenever he moved in just slightly, not in an effort to attack, but to exhaust her and test for weaknesses in her guard. Although she maintained a solid perimeter, there were moments when she was vulnerable. The moment she hesitated - the second her attack took just the slightest bit longer to initiate - Dosu dove in to finish the fight. As the weight connected with the tile once again, he dove forward rather than back. Although the retreating chain was poised to strike him, he would reach Nouga first, his fist raised to land a final blow against her.

Saburo realized with horror that he would connect directly with her skull. Dosu's ability to vibrate the water in the human body was severe enough to temporarily cripple a person's arm or leg - if it connected with the head, that close to the brain, even an attack at less than half strength could easily be lethal. Nouga realized this as well, and pulled her arm up to block, but Dosu had anticipated this. His target was the base of her skull, right where it connected to her spine. It was only a test - but he was going to cripple her for life.  
There was a long moment where Saburo thought that his teammate had been struck. The chain of her surujin went slack, and hit the ground with a heavy thud, as the wail of Dosu's speakers echoed through the large room. She fell back to land sprawled on the floor, and Saburo was absolutely certain she was dead.

He wasn't sure why, but he turned towards his sensei, perhaps in the hopes that she would be able to say something, do something, but she wasn't there. His heart rose up in his throat as he looked back out into the ring, where Nouga had begun to move, pushed up onto her elbows, her injured leg stretched limp in front of her. Where she had been, Mitsume now towered like a stone monolith, the direct recipient of Dosu's still shrieking attack. It took him a long second to realize she hadn't simply weathered the blow, but that his fist was caught in her hand, held just inches from her cheek, and it seemed to take Dosu even longer to realize that it wasn't his opponent in front of him.

The wail cut off sharply, and the ninja tried to pull back - but he was stuck. Mitsume held his fist firmly in her hand as the muscles in her arm briefly flexed, as if she had every intention of tearing the entire limb from his body. Her expression was entirely blank, a perfect mask of nothing as she stared into the genin's eyes. Distantly, Saburo heard Kakashi mutter a curse, and Guy took a step forward, obviously intending to charge in and stop her from tearing the genin apart like a wild animal defending its offspring. Before he could, she tossed Dosu's arm aside with enough force that it slung fully away from his side before he regained control. The two stared one another down for what felt like an eternity.  
Saburo always thought Mitsume was frightening, but in that moment, he realized he hadn't seen half of what she was capable of. The woman in the ring was the Rampaging Beast, the one who would track a man across the globe just to tear him apart, and she was challenging Dosu to come at her.

He was smart enough not to take the bait.

With the winner declared, Dosu stalked off to rejoin his teammates in the stands, Mitsume's eyes on him the entire time. When she was satisfied he was no longer a threat, she turned on her heel and closed the distance on Nouga. She tried to hide it, but tears spilled over her face, a combination of frustration and pain that overwhelmed her pride. She turned her head away as Mitsume crouched down beside her, and briefly said something too quiet to hear as she twisted her leg from one side to the other. Nouga whimpered out a response, her head turned away from their sensei, red with shame.

With a firm yank, Mitsume recoiled the surujin, and draped it over her shoulder before she turned back to Nouga. She struggled to try and stand, but all the strength had gone out of her legs, and she nearly fell before Mitsume caught her under the arms. Nouga's tears flowed more freely, as she wrapped an arm around Mitsume's ribs, supported by the strong hand on her shoulder. The two whispered to one another as the medical staff rushed out with a stretcher and attempted to get Nouga to lay back on it.

Mitsume brushed them off. Even though it obviously pained Nouga to do it, she hobbled along, her weight almost entirely supported by her sensei instead of her own two feet, but she insisted on walking nonetheless. As they slowly moved out of the arena, Saburo was pretty sure that through the tears, he saw Nouga smile.


	4. Genin (Mitsume)

Nouga had always dreamed of becoming a kunoichi. Ever since she first saw her father training his own genin squad, she had known that being a ninja was the only thing she would ever want to do with her life. She studied night and day from every last bit of material she could get her hands on - reference scrolls, advanced texts from the Academy, her father's advice - anything and everything she soaked up like a sponge in the hopes of being the best. Being Hokage seemed a bit boring, in her opinion, as the job seemed to be little more than sitting around filling out paperwork, but becoming a renowned ninja feared and respected the world over, like Namikaze-Hokage had been, that was exciting. She wanted to be the top of the list, the one the Hokage would turn to above anyone else, the go to for tasks no one else could complete.

Her hard work seemed to have paid off, too. She was near the top of her grade, edged out only by the notorious Uchiha Sasuke, but she wasn't particularly upset by that. The Uchiha were notoriously gifted when it came to the ways of shinobi, and the fact that she could consistently remain only one or two points behind one of them left her feeling confident. She may not be able to compete with Sasuke then and there, but she was close - closer than anyone else by a long shot. Not even Haruno Sakura, with her impeccable chakra control, could get close to Sasuke's level of skill, and the fact Nouga could put her leagues above everyone else. She was confident if she practiced hard enough, and studied long enough, she could claw her way up to Sasuke's level, and even surpass him.

Her teammates she wasn't too sure about. 

Saburo wasn't anything special. Neither of his parents or grandparents had been shinobi, which meant the fact he made it into the Academy at all was a bit of a surprise, since he would have had no training before applying to enter, and the entrance exams would have been that much tougher. He applied himself to his studies enough to maintain a perfectly average grade, poised just so to squeak by without drawing attention from Iruka-sensei, good or bad. She'd never talked to him before, but from what she had observed in class, he was perfectly content to be exactly average, though she suspected he would be able to give some of the better students, like Aburame or Haruno, a run for their money if he could work up the motivation.

Ohaku was a bit of a different story. He wasn't exactly a failure, but he barely stood above complete slackers like Uzumaki Naruto and Nara Shikamaru in his grades. Unlike them, however, he obviously struggled - his chakra control was far from what would be expected from graduates, he couldn't seem to remember material for tests, and he seemed to be constantly working himself to the limit just to understand the basics. She might have expected that from someone like Saburo, who had no training to speak of before the Academy, but she knew Ohaku came from a long line of respected shinobi, who had no doubt been training him since he could walk. He obviously wanted to do well, but it seemed obvious, at least to Nouga, that being a shinobi just wasn't the path for him. He had no natural aptitude whatsoever, and while that didn't preclude someone from becoming a shinobi, it drastically cut their chances, and she was a bit surprised he made it to graduation. It wouldn't shock her at all if he was one of the unlucky ones who remained an eternal genin, like Might Dai - and unfortunately for him, he didn't have anything that set him apart like the taijutsu expert.

She wasn't as upset as Naruto had been about the team assignments. She wasn't happy, but she wasn't upset. Their squad leader should be able to whip them into shape enough that they could get into the Chunin Exams, and once they hit the one-to-one fights in the later rounds, she was confident she'd be able to pass and leave them behind.  
If their jonin ever showed up, that was.

Almost everyone else in the class had split off and disappeared with their squad leaders nearly an hour ago, with the exception of Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto, who's sensei also seemed to be running late. Nouga hoped it was because they'd been given some sort of last minute task by the Hokage, or at the very least were running late because they had gotten involved in a practice match or were exhausted from a tough mission and over slept, but as the clock ticked ever onward, she began to get the feeling that wasn't the case. Saburo had long ago fallen asleep in his chair, head tipped back and feet kicked up while he snored loudly, and Ohaku had taken the opportunity to study, though he was obviously becoming agitated with sitting still, twitching his foot in a rapid, irritating tempo against the floor. She had taken out a book written by a monk from the Land of Earth, which had been particularly difficult to get her hands on, about a difficult sort of meditation he had perfected, while Sakura stuttered her way through a one sided conversation with Sasuke, and Naruto slowly went insane.

Then, just after Naruto placed a dirty eraser in the doorway, nearly two hours after their teachers were supposed to arrive, they finally made an appearance, with an almost magical sort of timing. The chalk-dust filled eraser made a direct hit on the uneven gray hair of the famed Hatake Kakashi, who either legitimately hadn't noticed it there or, more likely, had and just didn't care to put forward the effort to avoid it. From behind him in the hall, someone snorted out a laugh, meaning, to everyone's relief, both jonin had finally arrived. She was a bit disappointed Kakashi was the instructor for Sasuke's squad, but her own instructor was no one to shake a stick at, either.

Nouga wasn’t familiar with Kedamonoshu Mitsume, specifically, but she had heard of the Kedamonoshu clan once or twice before. They weren’t a consistent group, with at least half of their numbers serving as farmers or craftsmen while the others served as shinobi, who found themselves in a variety of roles, with no ability to serve as a constant between them. Unlike other clans, they didn’t keep a compound, and instead had lain claim to a quiet street just off the main artery through the village, where a majority of them lived in the buildings above the shops where they plied their wares. She had been there once, to buy a hair comb for her mother’s birthday – the tiny shop had been filled with a variety of handmade items, from wood carvings to wool blankets to jewelry, and she would never have known that the woman behind the counter was a retired kunoichi had her father not told her. She had spoken to the woman, who had claimed their clan were most well known for their tracking abilities, which had struck Nouga just as boring then as it did as a genin.

"Arara, Shicchi, looks like you got the fun group."

At the sound of her drawl, laced with laughter, Kakashi twitched slightly and curled his fist. It wouldn't surprise Nouga in the least if Kedamonoshu-sensei was only late because she'd spent the day annoying him.

"Care to trade, Michan?"

She just snorted, still smiling to herself, and finally turned to face her students. Nouga decided, after looking her over, that she was not the type of person who would typically stand out in a crowd. She would have been prettier, if she had more than a few inches of uncombed hair on her head and had bothered to wear something that actually fit. The only distinct thing about her was the tattoo that spanned her right arm - from what Nouga had seen, all of the Kedamonoshu shinobi had one, and even their civilians carried a much smaller version, and to her knowledge, it served no purpose except to function as a unifying symbol. 

"Nah." She replied simply. "That blonde is way too much of a headache."

Ignoring Naruto's squawks of disapproval, she gave all three of her students a once over, still smiling slightly to herself.

"Alright you three, let's get a move on. I've got a date at six, and if you make me late, I'll break your legs."

Although it was said with the same, lazy tone she'd been mocking Kakashi with, and the same lazy smile she'd had since she arrived, Nouga felt a chill travel down her spine. It felt like the air had shifted, suddenly going cold - Nouga jumped up immediately, before she even realized she was moving, filled with an overwhelming sense of anxiety. Saburo, who had opened one eye when the duo entered, smoothly got up from his spot, and out of the corner of her eye, Nouga saw Ohaku snap his pencil before scrambling to shove everything into his bag.

Nouga knew logically her new sensei wouldn't cripple them, but she got the distinct feeling it was best not to test that theory.

The four of them didn't go far. Just a short walk from the academy, Kedamonoshu-sensei decided a stone wall was the perfect place to sit down, and settled on it with her legs stretched out in front of her, crossed at the ankles. No one dared sit next to her - instead, Saburo flopped down and leaned against a sign post on the opposite side of the path, while Nouga settled into a proper kneeling position just off to one side and Ohaku scrambled to sit cross-legged off to the other. Again, Kedamonoshu-sensei appraised them briefly, before nodding to herself.

"Since we're going to be a team, we should probably get to know one another, so let's all tell each other a little bit about ourselves."

"What do you want to know?" Ohaku asked, his face screwed up the same way it was whenever he took a test.

"Whatever seems important, I guess. If you have any specialties or things you want to focus on, what your hobbies are, things like that." She shrugged casually.

There was a beat of silence, after which, she sighed through her nose in a way that clearly said she thought dealing with them was the most tedious thing in the world. Nouga had a dozen things to say on the tip of her tongue, but found that she had forgotten how to speak, remaining silent as she began to panic for fear she'd upset her sensei. Saburo, for his part, just grunted, and Ohaku looked like his head might explode as her wracked his brain for a response.

"Arara, I'll go first, then. My name is Kedamonoshu Mitsume, and my specialty is tracking. I like red bean ice cream, and I don't like miso unless it's in broth. My hobbies are fishing and listening to radio dramas."

As she finished, Saburo decided it was easier to just answer her and get it over with, instead of try and ignore her. Shifting so he sat up a little higher, although he still looked half asleep, he cleared his throat and began to speak.

"I'm Hanakawa Saburo. I don't have a specialty that I'm interested in. I like dango and I don't like spicy food. My hobby is cooking."

Finding her nerve, Naguo finally managed to reply.

"My name is Yamata Nouga. I have a lot of areas of interest, but I especially like genjutsu. I like curry but I dislike barbecue pork. My hobbies are reading and meditation."

Then, after a few more beats of silence, Ohaku spoke up.

"I'm, uh, I'm Kokusekigaki Ohaku. Um, I guess my favorite specialty is, mm, ninjutsu. M-my favorite food is okonomiyaki, and, ah, and I don't have a food that, uh, I hate. Ummm, I guess my h-hobby is st-studying, but I, ah, I also like gardening."

To the relief of Ohaku's obviously frazzled nerves, Kedamonoshu-sensei smiled peacefully when he finished, obviously not upset he had floundered his way through the introduction.

"Now that we've all gotten to know one another, we can talk about training. Tomorrow, I'm going to test your skill so I know where to start, so meet me at the river down the road at seven am sharp. Be sure to come prepared like you were leaving for a mission."

Without waiting for a response, she pushed off the wall, immediately walking away from the academy and the trio sitting on the path. Nouga started to stand to follow, before she realized Kedamonoshu-sensei was waving back at them over her shoulder in an obvious show of dismissal. 

"Good talk. See you tomorrow."

Unsurprisingly, Kedamonoshu-sensei was late. Not by nearly the two hours she had been the day before, but late nonetheless - probably, Nouga guessed, because there were snails that moved faster than she walked. That worked in Saburo's benefit, since he had shown up five minutes late himself, trying to eat a bento laden with way too much food and walk at the same time. As with the day prior, their sensei had a small smile on her face, hands crammed into her pockets, although notably, her chunin vest seemed to have shrunk a couple sizes, fitting her far better at the cost of gaining a few off-shade patches. Nouga wondered what happened to the other one, and why her sensei owned one three sizes too large to begin with, but there wasn't really time for questions about her wardrobe. 

"Good, you're all here." She smiled brightly, producing a kitchen timer from her pocket, winding it as she talked. "The four of us are going to play a sort of game, like hide and seek meets tag. All you three need to do is avoid being tagged for one hour. If one of you does get tagged, then all three of you become it. If you're still it when the hour is up, then we'll do it again, and again, until you win."

It seemed simple enough, if a bit juvenile, though Nouga could see the purpose behind it. The supposed game would let Kedamonoshu-sensei see them in both defensive and offensive roles, and give her a solid idea of where to start with their training. Saburo either caught on to the purpose right away, or more likely didn't care, while Ohaku opened his mouth, obviously confused. 

"Okay? Okay. Begin."

Without warning, the ground below their feet split apart as if rocked by hidden explosives. Nouga leaped backwards, away from the flying chunks of dirt and grass, desperately trying to get a look at what had blown apart the very earth, only for Kedamonoshu-sensei to appear not more than a few inches from her face, arm pulled back in what would certainly be a bone-shattering punch. Her smile remained in place, but instead of seeming peaceful and calm, it felt like the maniacal grin of a murderer about to take their next victim. 

Nouga would swear, for the rest of her days, that her life flashed before her eyes in that moment, as she squeezed them shut in terror.

Kedamonoshu-sensei's fist never connected - instead, she had stopped short, to gently tap Nouga in the forehead with the backs of her knuckles, though the air around them seemed as slow to understand as Nouga herself. It whipped wildly around from the force, feeling like knives on her skin, roaring so loudly in her ears she thought they might pop.

"You're it."

Then she was gone. A massive crater remained where the three of them once stood, and the timer still sat on the rock where she had placed it, but all other signs Kedamonoshu-sensei even existed had vanished. There wasn't a footprint, a rustle of leaves or disturbed blade of grass to tell them where she had gone. Ohaku claimed she had gone left, while Saburo immediately snapped that no, she had gone right.

It was going to be a very long day, Nouga thought, rubbing her forehead as the two began to squabble. A very, very long day.


	5. Shy (Kakashi/Senjuko)

"You're a pretty lucky guy, you know."

Startled by the sound of a voice from just a bit too close to his back, Kakashi glanced up from the less-than-quality Icha Icha rip off he had been perusing. The bookstore looked almost exactly how it had before he had gotten absorbed in his internal, judgmental monologue at how poorly written the climactic romance scene was - a mother and her son were in the corner, still bickering over the modest toy selection, while Mitsume, who had wandered in after him after they happened to cross paths on the street, still had her nose buried in the latest issue of a ridiculous drama rag about the stars of her favorite radio shows. In fact, the only thing that had changed at all was that the clerk was no longer standing behind the counter.

Unsurprisingly, she was the one who had spoken. How he had missed the sound of her pushing the cart full of new books up the aisle, he wasn't sure, but blamed it on the fact that the author of the garbage in his hand had produced such a wreck of a story it was impossible to look away. The young woman gave him an expectant stare, but as always seemed to be the case when she tried to initiate a conversation, he found himself suddenly at a loss for something clever to say.

She nodded her head at the book in his hand, which blatantly displayed its contents with the large adults only symbol on the cover, then nodded at Mitsume, who was still avidly reading an article at the end of the row of shelves.

"Most women wouldn't let their husband read stuff like that in front of them."

Kakashi felt his heart drop and stomach churn in time with the bark of laughter Mitsume couldn't hold back. He didn't dare spare a glance in her direction, but he could distinctly hear as she gasped and wheezed her way out of the store, before she stumbled out the front door and began to cackle so loudly not even the walls could muffle it.

"Um..." The clerk looked off in the direction of the door. "Is she okay?"

"She's not." Kakashi managed, mind torn between visions of itching powder in a certain ninja's underwear drawer and the realization that this was the first time he managed to speak to the clerk in months. "My wife, I mean. She's not my wife, or girlfriend or...no, definitely not."

"Oh," This admission didn't seem to help the clerk understand, as the lines on her face deepened in confusion. "I thought that, because you guys come in together all the time, you were..."

He made a choked sound at the thought. He cared about Mitsume, but the thought of being in a relationship with her - he could imagine it, but only accompanied by the same gut-wrenching chills that tormented children when they recalled a horrible nightmare. Just the thought of living with that she-beast made his skin crawl, and he suddenly found himself feeling like he desperately needed a shower.

"She gets bored when her fiance is away," He explained. "And it's safer for her to torture me than the general public."

The smile she gave him told him she hoped he was joking, but couldn't be sure, wavering as she attempted to figure it out.

"I'm kidding. We're just friends."

This smile was much more confident. He felt his heart start to thunder, and sent a silent thank you to his past self for starting his constant habit of wearing a mask, as he felt his face begin to heat up beneath it. Never, in his life, had Kakashi met someone who could so easily and unintentionally fluster him. He wasn't sure why, of all people, it was the quiet book store clerk who had managed that feat - yes, she was cute, but she wasn't that good looking, even if he really did like the way her eyes started to sparkle and the little dimple that formed on the right side of her mouth that made her smile look just the slightest bit uneven which just added to-.

She was talking to him. Shit. She was talking and he had absolutely no idea what she was saying, and he had been staring at that stupid, adorable dimple for way to long. He must seem like a complete creep.

"-Really like it. The story is kind of bare bones but it's really well written." He glanced down, and realized that she had another adult novel in her hands, one he had glossed over earlier in lieu of something with either more boobs or violence on the cover.

"Oh. Thank you." 

He focused on his arm, to ensure his sweaty palms didn't tremble as he took the weighty paperback from her. There, he decided, her hands weren't that cute - her middle finger was slightly crooked, overlapped just a little by her ring finger, and he most definitely, absolutely, positively couldn't imagine those fingers slowly traveling down his chest to lightly run over his-.

"Is that really the time? Looks like I'm late for a meeting. I should really get going, but I'll be sure to pick this up later."

With that, the gray haired ninja was out of there in a puff of smoke. 

Senjuko never really knew what to make of him. Although he had been a regular of the store since before she had taken it over from her father five years ago, they didn't get much opportunity to talk - which was unfortunate, because he seemed like a nice guy, from what she had been able to glean from his conversations. She didn't eavesdrop, exactly, but the woman he usually came in with was difficult to ignore, and always made it a point to strike up a conversation at the register with her, which usually only ended when he decided she had gotten too close to the line of what was acceptable behavior in public and dragged her out.

She had always assumed the two were together, and that the woman had noticed the longing stares directed at her lover that Senjuko tried and failed to hide - every conversation they had seemed to turn into the woman attempting to tell her how great the man was, so she had thought that it had been a matter of marking her territory. The man, who she knew as Kakashi, however, had seemed uncomfortable and maybe even a little disgusted by the idea. Senjuko had felt a glimmer of hope that maybe the woman had actually been trying to talk up her quiet friend, and tried to start a conversation about what was obviously a shared fondness of a certain adult literature genre, but by the way he vanished in a rush left her thinking otherwise. She couldn't tell if he really was late for something, or if he had been nervous, or just wasn't interested and was too shy to figure out a way to let her down gently.

An hour later and Mitsume was still laughing. He had hoped that she would pull something or, if he was really lucky, pass out from a lack of oxygen, but luck had the bad habit of working against him, and demons didn't need to breathe. Worse yet, they had come across Guy, who had immediately stopped to find out why his girlfriend was curled up in the dirt cackling like a mad woman, and she had managed to calm down enough to relate the story between fits of giggling. 

"I never thought someone like my eternal rival would be so shy." Guy grinned as he slung an arm over Kakashi's slumped shoulders. "Not to worry - with a little bit of training from a master at romance like myself, you'll be getting married to the woman of your dreams in no time."

Mitsume was turning an awful shade of purple, Kakashi noted. He resisted the urge to remind Guy that most normal people didn't consider loud, over the top declarations of love on a near daily basis for over a decade to actually be romantic - but unlike his fiance, who may or may not have actually died laughing, Guy was genuinely trying to be helpful. His idea of helping was to set up a big banner that read "Will you join me on a journey through the springtime of youth? - Kakashi", accompanied by a fireworks display with the leftovers from the New Years Festival and Lee performing a terrible rendition of what was supposed to be a romantic song on a zephyr, but at least he tried. 

"No, that's alright, Guy, really." 

"Nonsense! As your friend, it is my duty to guide you in your time of need, so that you can experience the wonder of your youth in bloom!" 

Several people had stopped to observe the scene - Guy screaming about the springtime of youth as he jostled Kakashi so hard he swore his neck was going to snap, while Mitsume either laughed or had a seizure. Reaching up in an attempt to get loose, Kakashi felt something slip from his hand. There was a sense of vindication as the mystery object hit Mitsume in the mouth, not that she even noticed, before he realized what it was.

The book Senjuko had recommended - he had completely forgotten about it in his haste to leave before he made a complete ass of himself, and hadn't noticed he still held onto it. Thankfully, the sight was enough for Guy to let go, and Kakashi took the opportunity to swoop down and grab it while putting himself at the minimum safe distance from his supposed friends. For a moment, he took a closer look at it, skimming the back cover. It was exactly the sort of thing he would pick up himself, and he wasn't entirely certain how he had missed it thus far, though he found himself glad that he had.

With a sidelong glance at the two still making a scene, he decided he really should go back and pay for it.

"Excuse me."

Senjuko screamed at the sound of a voice not two feet behind her, smacking the back of her head off the shelf as she jumped in fright. She spun around, and found Kakashi standing nearby, his one visible eye creased with concern. He pushed off the shelf and out of his standard casual pose to crouch beside her, reaching for the back of her head.

"Sorry, I thought you heard the bell." He asked, feeling for a knot on the back of her scalp. "Are you alright?"

The throbbing pain in her skull was the last thing on Senjuko's mind, which had all but frozen. All she could focus on was the gentle touch of his fingers as he checked for injuries, and she had to bite back the urge to stop him when he pulled away.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I do stuff like that all the time." She hesitated, her mouth dry as she realized he was close enough to touch. "Um, how was your meeting?"

He looked confused for a moment - as much as he could with only a single eye to emote with - before he remembered his hastily given excuse. 

"Oh, it was fine."

Then came the awkward silence. Neither was quite certain what to say, and realizing how close they were to one another, the simultaneously pulled back, leaping to their feet. Senjuko absently flattened the creases of her dress, and picked at a nonexistent piece of lint, while his gaze traveled the nearby shelf without really seeing anything at all. Senjuko was never good with silence, however, and after just a minute or two, cleared her throat. 

"Did you need help finding something, or...?"

His eye widening slightly, he reached into his vest pocket, and produced a familiar paperback, holding it out towards her. 

"Actually, I thought I should come back and pay for this." He stated, as his free hand scratched at the back of his head. "I completely forgot I had it."

"Oh! No, that's okay, you can have it. I completely forgot, myself, actually."

"Seriously, I can't just take it."

Before they could continue to go in circles indefinitely, he seemed to spot something through the window that, if she wasn't mistaken, made him cringe in horror. She glanced over her shoulder, and immediately shrieked, leaping towards the relative safety of the ninja nearby from the two monsters at the window. It was only after she had grabbed hold of him that she realized the two demonic figures were regular people, who had pressed their faces into the glass - one was the woman from before, and the other she didn't recognize, but he shouted something that might have been "go for it Kakashi".

"Excuse me," The gray haired man stated as he gently set her on her feet. "I need to have a word with my friends."

He said the word with absolute venom as he glared at the duo. Oblivious to his barely concealed rage, the woman called out for him to "finally get a piece", at which point her companion turned to her and began to rant about her vulgarity and the purity of young love. Senjuko resisted the urge to laugh, and instead, reached for the ninja's tightly curled fist. He relaxed immediately, unfurled fingers readily allowing hers to slip between them. 

"You know, I was thinking about getting some lunch. Have you eaten yet?" 

"Ah, no, not yet."

"Why don't we go get something together, then?" She eyed the window, where the two were still loudly arguing, entirely ignorant to the crowd watching. "We...can sneak out the back."


	6. Run (Mitsume)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some minor depictions of violence, but it's pretty fleeting.

It was just too easy.

Rumors that the Leaf had gotten weak over the last few years of peace were certainly well founded. Their genin were pathetic, kittens trying to battle a lion with useless claws and tiny fangs, too prideful to realize they were massively outmatched. Their sensei, the supposedly fearsome Rampaging Beast, had lost a good deal of her strength to complacency, unable to break through the duo of unimpressive ex-jonin sent to keep her busy. He hoped the two didn't kill her - he had paid them well to keep her alive, so that he could be the one to claim her head.

Only one of the children held any measure of promise, but even he was mediocre at best, certainly not worth keeping alive. The other boy was skittish and weak, distracted by his own cowardice but unable to run on his shattered ankle, and the girl had too much pride in her amateur genjutsu, her only backup - a surujin - rendered useless by a well placed kunai in the abdomen. The one he held by the throat was the only one to put up a halfway decent fight, and he might have considered taking the boy on as his apprentice, if he wasn't so sickeningly loyal to his pathetic village.

What a waste. Even through the hand that closed around his windpipe, he gasped out insults - the boy had enough of a spine to look his killer in the eye and spit in his face.

Ronshu was about to tighten his grip just enough to snap the boy's neck, when the child began to grin. His lips pulled back from his bloody teeth as his body shook with laughter it didn't have enough breath to give sound to. He dropped the boy onto the grass, where he landed on his back with a weak thud, gasping desperately before he pushed himself up onto his elbows.

"Do you find death amusing, boy?"

"N-not my death, no." He wheezed, as he slowly began to crawl backwards. "But yours?"

"And just who is going to kill me? One of you pathetic whelps?"

The boy shook his head, a small smile on his face as his back finally hit the base of a tree.

"Do you think your sensei is going to save you?" He snorted. "I wouldn't be surprised if the Byakukoku brothers have already taken her head. Your precious sensei has gotten weak, just like your pathetic village, if those two can challenge her."

"Arara, who are you talking about?" A woman's voice drawled from just within the treeline, though Ronshu could not pinpoint exactly where. "You don't mean these two, do you? Because I'd hardly call them a challenge."

He spun around as the voice came closer, nearly at his ear. Just within the small clearing was Kedamonoshu, scuffed but apparently unharmed. She held the throats of the Byakukoku brothers in either hand as if they weighed nothing at all, their bodies limp, but alive. They would not remain that way for long, however, as she had not seen fit to tie off what remained of their severed arms, which was just as well, as far as Ronshu was concerned. The loss of a limb would cripple any shinobi, but with the their dominant hands removed, the jutsu the brothers relied on became impossible for them to use.

They were worthless - just as worthless as her pathetic students.

"Saburo, Ohaku, take Nouga to the healer." She commanded, as the two bodies dropped to the grass with a wet thud. "You did well, but I'll handle the rest."

Ronshu made no effort to stop the trio. There was little point - the nearest healer was in that pathetic little village up the road, and the few ninja who protected it would pose no threat to him. He would let them go, let them think their sensei would defeat him, before he arrived to finish the job with her head in his hands. Let their last moments be filled with horror and hopelessness, he decided, for being so weak. 

"I wouldn't run, if I were you." The girl stated as the boy gathered her into his arms. 

"What was that, brat?"

"It'll just make it worse for you if you do." The one with the broken leg warned, his tone ominous, even as he leaned weakly on his companion.

The brats still needed the ego beaten out of them, he decided. Instead of allow them to run off as he intended, he flung several kunai at them - he would make them stay and watch as he tore their worthless leader to pieces. A final lesson for their short, miserable little lives. Laden with the weight of his two injured comrades, the boy couldn't have moved if he wanted to, but to Ronshu's irritation, he did not drop his obnoxious little smirk, even as the weapons flew towards his legs.

The kunoichi was suddenly in front of them. She had shown no such speed when he struck alongside the brothers - he had easily been able to track her movements then, but he had not even realized she had moved until his eyes reconciled the sight in front of him. The kunai scattered uselessly as they were deflected by a single, deft swipe of her hand that cut through the air with an audible whisper of force.

"Get going, Saburo."

The boy followed her instructions, and rushed off as fast as he could manage with his comrade's extra weight. Ronshu considered striking at his retreating back, but his plan to bring them her head sounded quite pleasant - the shock and horror on their faces would be all the more extreme after that little display. With one hand still stuck deeply in her pocket, Kedamonoshu maintained her position between them, head cocked slightly as she listened for their movements, until well after they had left his range of perception.

Finally, she decided they were far enough away, and her eyes cut back towards him. Where there had been irritation and concern before, there was nothing - her face, her posture, her eyes all gave him no indication of her emotions, and that sent an unexpected chill down his spine he tried to ignore. He had seen that stare only once before, in the face of the hunter-ninja who had nearly killed him all those years ago. He could still remember the man's final moments, after Ronshu had ripped off his mask and tore his abdomen apart with his blade.

His death had been the only one Ronshu had not drawn satisfaction from.

He opened his mouth to taunt her - like hell he was going to be denied the pleasure of seeing her fear as he killed her - but was interrupted before he could speak.

"Shut up," Kedamonoshu demanded. "And start running."

It was dusk when Saburo spotted the familiar figure of his sensei on the path towards the clinic. Even though she was shadowed in the dying light of the sun, he could tell she was unharmed, her hands crammed in her pockets as if it was just another day. 

"How are they?"

"They'll be alright in a few weeks." He shrugged one shoulder, the ribs on his other side too sore to move. "There's a farmer heading to Konoha in a couple days - says we can ride with him. They should be good to move by then."

Mitsume nodded and flopped down onto the crate beside him, legs outstretched. She patted her pockets for a moment, before she produced a thin metal box, and plucked a long cigarette from inside. He observed the plume of smoke that poured from her lips with a heaving sigh, before he turned his attention back to the store across from him.

"Don't tell Guy, alright?" She stated as she held her hand out towards him, cigarette burning between her fingers. "Otherwise I'll never hear the end of it."

He glanced at her briefly, but she was staring off herself, and he decided to take the roll of paper. The smoke burned, and he coughed slightly, before he forced the agonizing rumble back down and took a second breath of the burning tobacco, before he passed it back to her. They sat in silence for a while, passing the cigarette back and forth, until it ran down to the filter, and she stubbed it out with the heel of her sandal. She rose and moved to head inside the clinic, scratching the back of her neck.

"He dead?" 

He knew the answer - but he still needed her confirmation. She paused, the door half open, and eyed him oddly for a moment. Then she nodded, and disappeared inside. He reached down, and plucked another cigarette from the tin she left sitting on the crates as he relaxed against the clinic wall.

"Good."


	7. Mystery (Guy/Mitsume)

Nouga was never one for gambling - but her teammates had offered her a bet she just couldn't refuse.

Mitsume-sensei had made no secret that she had a boyfriend. Although she didn't talk much about her personal life, there had been plenty of occasions where she ended training because she had a date, and she had once brought a particularly spicy curry he had made, which she and Ohaku had also choked back just to watch Saburo suffer from the smell. All the trio could gather about him, however, was that he had been with her for several years, that they lived together, and that he had his own genin squad.

Saburo decided he would take bets on who Mitsume's mystery boyfriend was, and Nouga couldn't refuse. Both she and Sakura believed it was Kakashi - it seemed pretty obvious that the two were in love, and suspected their general hostility was a cover to keep the relationship secret, especially from their students. The guys either just didn't see it, or in Saburo's case, saw it and prayed he was wrong for fear of what sort of demon spawn their kids would be. Naruto thought it might be Iruka-sensei, citing that he liked to cook, and was just spiteful enough to make spicy food for Mitsume's students knowing full well they didn't like it. Ohaku figured it was probably the terrifying Morino Ibiki, as he seemed like the only guy on the planet who could deal with Mitsume's cruel streak - more importantly, he'd seen the two of them having lunch a few weeks prior. Sasuke had tried to abstain, claiming the whole thing was stupid, but eventually put his money down on Ibiki as well.

Saburo was the only one to pick none of the above. Nouga suspected he knew something more than them, but he explained his reasoning was that their options were all too obvious. If Kakashi was her boyfriend, the two would avoid each other like a plague so they wouldn't find out - if it were Iruka, their old teacher probably would have said something about being in a relationship, and it wouldn't surprise him if Mitsume and Ibiki had a working relationship, since she was a prolific tracker and he was a part T&I.  
Everyone was determined to find out in their own ways. Saburo and Naruto split off to go get Iruka for lunch, and try to pry an answer out of him after buttering him up with food. Sasuke and Ohaku decided to follow Ibiki, who was apparently on his day off, and see if he did anything that would give him away. Sakura and Nouga decided the best course was to simply approach Kakashi and ask.

"Um, Kakashi-sensei, can I ask you something?"

The gray haired jonin stopped midstride at Sakura's voice, pulling his nose out of his well worn book.

"Sure, what is it?" 

"Um, what do you...what do you think of Mitsume-sensei?"

For a moment, he stared at the two genin blankly, as if it took his mind several seconds to process the question. 

"What do you mean?" 

"I mean, um, I mean you guys are always so nasty too each other, but you're always together, so are you friends or...?"

"Oh." He hummed thoughtfully as he considered the question. "Well, I suppose we are. We didn't really get a choice, though. Her boyfriend has been forcing us to get along for years, so I suppose we've just gotten used to one another. Why?" 

"Oh, no reason! Just forget I asked."

It definitely wasn't Kakashi.

After his second bowl of ramen, Naruto finally decided to ask Iruka the question that had been on the tip of his tongue since they met up outside the academy. Iruka was in a pleasant mood, which was good, after hearing Naruto had been doing as well as he had under Kakashi's tutelage. That was especially lucky after Saburo, after just one bowl, declared he had things to do and wandered off, leaving one of them to pay his bill. 

"Ne, Iruka-sensei, have you ever met Mitsume-sensei?"

The chunin paused, glancing at the ceiling thoughtfully for a moment as he swallowed his mouthful of noodles.

"Kedamonoshu Mitsume? Saburo-kun's sensei?" Naruto nodded vigorously. "We've known each other since we were kids, but we don't get too many opportunities to talk anymore. It's kind of a relief, actually. To be honest, she always kind of intimidated me."

"You're telling me."

"You know, I originally had you placed on her squad. I figured someone tough like her might be able to knock some sense into you, but the Hokage was pretty sure you two would just end up trying to kill one another. Guess you got lucky, huh?"

The next time Naruto saw the old man, he was going to bow at his feet and thank him.

Ibiki was, by far, the most difficult target. The mountain of a man was, objectively, absolutely terrifying, and getting caught spying on the head of T&I was far more terrifying a prospect than anything Kakashi or Mitsume could do by a long shot. That was probably why Sasuke had been forced to put up with Ohaku's trembling knees all morning.  
Ibiki hadn't done anything particularly interesting. If anything, it seemed like he was just running normal errands, purchasing groceries and other household supplies. The only clue that told them anything one way or the other was the fact he had purchased miso packets, which Mitsume apparently hated, but on the other hand, he had picked up red bean ice-cream, which Mitsume apparently loved. After an entire day of tracking him, the fact that Ibiki had picked up one thing she liked and one thing she hated was all they had to go on. While the behemoth entered another shop to pick up some fresh fruit, the two considered what to do, as the idea of tracking him the rest of the day or even just to his house was nerve wracking. 

"Why don't we just ask him?"

"Ask me what?"

To his credit, Sasuke didn't scream - he nearly jumped out of his skin, but Ohaku was the only one to scream. He spun around, and found himself immediately toe to toe with the mountain of a man, who glared down at the duo, arms crossed over his chest and a deep scowl on his face.

"H-h-h-how l-long have y-y-you known-?" Ohaku stuttered, blatantly hiding behind Sasuke, either out of fear or to prevent Ibiki from seeing his trembling. 

"You two need a lot of practice before you can sneak up on a real ninja. Now, what do you want?"

Ohaku tried to respond, but all that came out was a high-pitched sound that could probably break glass, so Sasuke cleared his throat.

"Are you dating Kedamonoshu-sensei?"

Although he couldn't see Ibiki's eyebrows, Sasuke got the distinct impression that they were probably somewhere near his hair line from the way he twitched. His scowl began to deepen as a rumble built in his chest, but instead of snap their heads off, he started laughing. The loud, booming sound drew several onlookers who were passing by, trying to figure out what truly hilarious thing made the fearsome Morino Ibiki bellow in amusement. He tried twice to stop and explain his response, but both times, he started laughing again, until it had gone on so long it was almost uncomfortable.

"No." Ibiki replied simply, still snickering slightly. "Definitely not."

"B-but I saw you at Ichiraku..." Ohaku finally found his nerve, though barely, his voice quiet.

"We used to work together, until she was assigned you brats." That answered so many questions, Sasuke mused silently. "We get dinner sometimes to catch up. Now,"

All signs of joy suddenly slipped from Ibiki's face, sending a shiver down Sasuke's spine.

"You two stop following me, and I won't tell Mitsume-san about this."

The five upset genin met where they began, no closer to an answer than they had been when they started that morning. They were lamenting their failure, when Saburo came meandering up the path, looking very much like the cat that caught the canary.

"Where have you been?" Naruto demanded. "You owe me for that ramen, by the way."

In response, Saburo pulled a scrap of paper out of his pocket with a grin.

"Went to see the Hokage. I told him I had a very important question for Mitsume-sensei, and didn't know where she lived, so he gave me this."

"What is it?"

"Her address."

Mitsume, as it turned out, lived in a modest house not far off the main thoroughfare of the village. The simple, two floor building sat on a small, square plot of land between two identical houses, differentiated only by the lawn ornaments, and the fact that her neighbors were the only ones in the area who had seen fit to put up fences. The house didn't look like the mouth to an eternal realm of suffering, as they had expected, but instead, just like any other house, with a well maintained lawn and a little flower garden on either side of the steps. The only thing that indicated Mitsume might actually live there was the metal bear lawn ornament that sat between two pristine magnolia bushes.

Through the gauzy curtains, they could see the hazy image of someone who definitely wasn't Mitsume. Compared to her, he was a monster - he dwarfed her in height alone, that much was obvious even sitting down, to say nothing of how broad he was. One of his arms was probably as about as thick around as her waist. He was seated, listening to the combined sounds of Mitsume clattering and subsequently cursing up a storm in the kitchen, as well as a radio drama, as he flexed one arm up towards his chest repetitively, a ridiculously large dumbell in his fist.

Nouga and Sakura swooned - tan skin, dark hair, plenty of muscles, Mitsume had pulled in the trifecta of tall, dark, and handsome. The others tried to mentally tally off who this guy could be, but the closest they could think of was Ibiki - and it definitely wasn't him, by the sound of his voice when he called to see if Mitsume needed any help after a particularly loud crash. It was too smooth, with a slight drawl, and they knew they'd never heard it before.

Naruto was the one to finally work up the nerve to approach the door. He hesitated for several minutes, before his fear of Sakura - who desperately wanted to see Mitsume's boyfriend in the flesh - temporarily outweighed his fear of Mitsume's wrath, and he weakly rang the doorbell.

"If it's that door to door salesman again, tell him I've got a knife." Mitsume called from the back of the house.

The dumbbell made an incredible thud as it hit the ground, in spite of how gently the man set it down. As he stood and stretched, Sakura nearly fainted, and Nouga wiped a little bit of blood from her nose - even through the curtains, it was plain as day that his every muscle was perfectly sculpted. While they admired, the others flinched, acutely aware this man could probably fold them into a literal pretzel without even trying. 

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it." The man called back, after grabbing a towel to wipe his forehead, leaving it draped over his shoulders as he approached the door.

The lock clicked, followed by the rattle of a small chain. Naruto watched in a combination of overwhelming curiosity and abject horror as the knob began to turn, the door sliding open inch by inch. Finally, Mitsume's mysterious boyfriend appeared.

Sakura screamed and hid behind Sasuke, who's face became locked in a weird amalgamation of disappointment, rage, and surprise. Nouga fainted, landing against Ohaku, who couldn't seem to decide if he wanted to laugh or cry. Saburo just sort of stared, not blinking and quite possibly not breathing. All Naruto saw was hair. Wiry, inky black chest hair, that covered what might have been tan skin like uncut grass. Looking up, he saw more hair, terrifyingly broad shoulders, a rock-like jaw - then the absolute most ridiculous haircut and eyebrows he'd ever seen in his life.

"Oh," His eyebrows went up, moving like two caterpillars on his forehead. "Can I help you?"

"We're, uh," Saburo cleared his throat uncomfortably, dropping back to his usual register from the weird, gaspy sort of squeak he had made. "We're looking for Kedamonoshu-sensei?"

The man's confusion morphed into a grin - his teeth, perfectly straight and white, almost seemed to glitter in the sunlight. He pushed the half-open door the rest of the way, allowing them to look into the house, had anyone been able to look away from him long enough to notice.

"Ah, you must be one of her students, and if I'm not mistaken, you three were paired with my eternal rival, Kakashi." He picked out Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto with ease, even though they were positive they'd never seen him in their life.

"Yeah. That's...about right." Saburo cleared his throat again. "I, uh, don't think we've met, though."

The man's boisterous laugh seemed to shake the very ground they stood on - worse yet, the action puffed out his chest, reminding them all of the ridiculous amount of hair that covered his torso. It only ran over his pectorals and down the middle of his abdomen, like most other men, but there was just so much of it - it was so dense, it could probably stop a kunai.

"No, I'm afraid I haven't had the time to meet you guys yet. I'm Might Guy, Konoha's Sublime Green Beast, and Mitsume-chan's handsome fiancé!" This statement was accompanied by a ridiculous pose, and suddenly the fences were making a lot more sense.

"Fiancé?" 

"Guy, stop being nice to them." Mitsume's voice snapped from just over his shoulder, though it didn't have the usual bite.

Turning slightly, the man stepped aside to reveal Mitsume. The fact that this was the first time they'd ever seen her out of her usual active-duty wear was hard to appreciate, considering the series of shocks they'd just received, as well as the fact she had a massive kitchen knife clenched in her bone white fist. All three of her students knew the look in her eye well, having seen it whenever she subjected them to going up against her in training - last time he saw that look, Saburo narrowly avoided a kick that leveled an ancient oak.

"Arara, how did you little bastards get my address?"

Everyone immediately scrambled to hide behind Saburo, keeping him from being able to beat a hasty retreat in fear of his life. Although Guy eyed her a little oddly at the statement, like he wanted to say something about it, he kept his mouth shut, leaning in the doorframe to observe.

"I, uh, well you see, umm, what had happened was..."

"Ugh, doesn't matter. Forget you know it, and never come back."

"Actually," Guy finally spoke. "I've been trying to find time to meet your students, Mitsume-chan. Kakashi's too. Maybe they should just stay for dinner."

None of them were sure they wanted to, but they were all too terrified to leave, mostly because the idea of being rude to the behemoth of a man, or Mitsume, filled them with a dread normally reserved for life or death fights against impossible odds. He seemed nice enough, if extremely weird, but who knows how Mitsume would respond if she felt they slighted him, or how short his temper really was.

The two had a silent conversation with one another - he leaned casually in the doorway, staring down at Mitsume, who was barely up to his heart, while she stared defiantly back up at him, squinting in displeasure. Then, finally, one of them caved, but it wasn't Guy, as they expected.

It was Mitsume, who threw her hands into the air and loped off towards the kitchen.

"If any of you little shits so much as breathe wrong on our stuff, I'll be serving you for dinner, understand?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Saburo was surprised he made it home alive that night. Mitsume had threatened to end his life, in particular, no less then ten times, though aside from her barely contained rage, things had actually been rather pleasant. Guy was loud and weird, but a nice guy overall, which made the relationship even more surprising - it seemed next to impossible to actually make him mad, and he just laughed off any threats of bodily harm his demonic fiancé made on the genin. It was hard to see how the two could have possibly gotten together, until Guy told them how he'd been in love with her since they were kids. 

He won her over through sheer, single minded determination - Saburo hadn't thought anyone was more stubborn than his sensei, but it seemed Guy was her match.   
Surprisingly, they hadn't been the only guests that night. Shortly after they arrived, so did a boy about their age named Rock Lee, who Saburo decided had to be Guy's clone, just as weird and just as loud as his squad leader, but overall not a bad guy - Saburo didn't see why he thought Sakura was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but otherwise, they got along alright. Apparently, he had been wanting to meet the team as well, and held Mitsume in extremely high regard, considering them lucky she was their sensei, citing her as harsh, but not as cruel as they believed, which had prompted threat on Saburo's life number six.

He laid in bed for a while, contemplating whether or not he'd be able to make it out of the country before Mitsume caught on, before he remembered Guy's story about how she had once tracked him all the way to the Land of Waves, and he decided running was too much work. She'd just catch him and drag him back, and his punishment would be even worse. Better to loose a finger instead of the whole hand.

With a yawn, he rose from his bed and shuffled to his closet to get his clothes for the day. It took him a moment to understand why his closet looked different, before his mind finally began to wake up, and told him it was because all of his clothes were missing. The only thing the remained was something he most definitely didn't buy for himself, the bright green fabric dangling limply in the otherwise empty space.

Pinned to the front was a note, in Mitsume's pin straight handwriting.

"Show up at my house again, and you'll be wearing one of these for a whole lot longer than a week. PS, if you show up in your pajamas, I'll burn everything."


	8. Chaos (Kakashi/Senjuko)

It had been a normal day.

She had been at the market – she had a date with Kakashi that night, and she had gone to pick up some eggplant to prepare his favorite meal. Then, somewhere in the distance, people had begun to scream. Ninja had rushed out of nowhere towards the chaos, while civilians had flooded towards the market as they fled, and somehow, she had gotten caught up in the flow of bodies. She had no idea what was going on outside, though some whispered that it was an attack. By who they weren’t sure, but they were certain that was what it was, and that the enemy was incredibly powerful. 

She had run along with the others, as she tried to avoid being trampled, in their desperate bid to reach the Academy, the nearest safe house. She could see the Hokage’s massive slug summon loom over the tops of the buildings, felt hope start to blossom in her chest that she would be safe if she could just keep running.

Then someone behind her stumbled. Their hands hit her back as they tried to right themselves without loosing momentum, and the next thing she knew, she was in the dirt, as people trampled over her in a flurry of terror. One kicked her in the nose – she heard the bone crunch, just as pain flared through her skull and her mouth was flooded with the metallic taste of blood. People just kept running – they didn’t even bother to move around her, bringing their weight down on her without regard for the damage they may do. By the time it stopped, it seemed like every inch of her was in agony, and she could barely manage to open her eyes, never mind get back up and move to safety. On a hand with two fingers bent the wrong way, she managed to push herself onto her back, but from there, she could go no further. 

Sprawled in the dirt, she stared up at the sky. Dimly, she mused how odd it was, that the sky would be so beautiful on such a terrible day. Her chest hurt – she couldn’t breathe without a shrieking agony spearing her right side, where she didn’t doubt one of her ribs had been broken. She wondered what was happening, who had attacked, if Kakashi was alright. No doubt he’d be in the middle of it all, and she prayed even if she didn’t make it out, either from the injuries she had now or the ones she may get later, that he did. He was a good man – the kind of man the world needed far more than someone like her, someone who had never been able to contribute anything of value to the world. 

A shadow crossed her field of vision, and her pain increased ten fold. It took her a long moment to realize that she wasn’t being tortured and killed, just moved, lifted into someone’s arms and rushed away from where she’d fallen. With every ounce of her will, she forced one of her eyes open, and past the blur of her tears, she recognized she face of the person who now held her in their arms. 

Not Kakashi – Mitsume, one of his friends, of which he had precious few. For a moment, relief filled her, as she realized she was saved, before it was crushed by a horrible realization. Mitsume was a taijutsu specialist, a front line fighter – she shouldn’t be away from the main battle, and she wouldn’t be, not if that’s where Kakashi and Might Guy were. And if Kakashi hadn’t come for her, then that’s where he was. 

Mitsume leaped across the rooftops so quickly it made Senjuko’s head spin, and skidded to a halt just as quickly, on the roof of a squat little apartment building away from both the Academy and the main battle. She could see it in the distance, as the incredibly powerful ninja exchanged inhuman blows. Waiting there were Mitsume’s students – Saburo, recently promoted to chunin, his mouth set in a grim line, flanked by Ohaku, who’s expression spoke of unbelievable sadness, and Nouga, her brows knit in rage. Without a word, Mitsume passed Senjuko off to the young chunin, who easily cradled her in his arms, shifting her as gently as possible. 

“Where’s Kakashi?” Senjuko demanded, her voice trembling weakly as she stared at the jonin’s back. “Mitsume, where is he?” 

She glanced back over her shoulder. Her face was completely blank, an expression so incredibly different from her usual smirk that she almost didn’t look like herself. The jonin had been in a fight, Senjuko realized – bruises had begun to form on her arms, blood matted her hair to her forehead and dripped down over her cheek, her clothing stained with dirt and the fabric torn. Her stare, which was usually full of amusement and a lackadaisical carelessness, were cold. No anger, no sadness, no confusion carefully concealed beneath the surface – just emptiness. 

It was the stare of a dead woman – someone who had just lost everything, everyone, even her very will to live. 

“Sensei,” Saburo began, ignoring Senjuko entirely. “Are you sure we can’t…?” 

“No,” Even her voice was flat. “They’re too strong, and you have a job to do.” 

She could hear Saburo swallow his protests. Nouga’s surujin jingled softly as her grip briefly went slack, and she choked back an audible sob with a fluttery sigh. Ohaku sniffled wetly from Senjuko’s other side, and moved to wipe his face. 

“Get away from the village and patch her up,” Mitsume ordered softly, and tossed her chin at Senjuko. “Then head for Sunagakure. Make sure they’re ready.” 

There was a beat of silence. Mitsume, unable to look at them anymore, turned her stare back out at the village, where the sounds of violence had only grown. 

“Go.” No one moved. “That’s an order – go!” 

It wasn’t anger that made Mitsume shout. Senjuko could hear it clearly in her voice, the way it cracked and trembled – it was grief, too much to contain. Then she was gone, a shadow in the sky as she moved towards where the fighting was the most intense and disappeared into the smoke and debris. The younger ninja lingered a moment longer, then they, too, began to move, in the opposite direction, out of the city and into trees. 

Every movement jostled her injuries, but it wasn’t the pain that brought tears to her eyes. She couldn’t believe it, refused to believe it was true – she couldn’t be alive, not if he wasn’t with her. She clung desperately to the hope that he was still fighting, somewhere, and that Mitsume was mistaken, that she’d leap in and save him, that Guy was there to keep him safe. The three of them would make it, she told herself, they’d make it and everything would be alright. 

Then there was a horrible sound – a horrifically loud explosion, loud enough to reach them even at their distance, and everything fell miserably silent. The young ninja stopped on the branches of a particularly tall tree, unable to stop themselves from looking. Where the Konohagakure skyline had once stood, there was nothing. 

The genin left her in a small village at the edge of the Land of Fire, in the care of a kind old woman who had reset her broken bones and applied salve to lessen the pain in her bruises. They had bickered while the woman worked, over whether they should continue on to Sunagakure or go back to the ruins of Konohagakure. Ohaku had quietly revealed to her that when the attack began, Mitsume had sent them to help with the evacuation, while she went to help against the initial strike. She’d later sent one of her summons, with instructions to meet so she could provide them with important information to pass to the Kazekage to help him prepare to fight this new opponent. Even though it was a crucial mission, they wanted to go back, to try and help anyone who may have survived. 

She wasn’t sure what they decided to do – or if she even cared, one way or the other. It was hard to think about much of anything except the crippling ache in her heart. 

That had been three days earlier. She had finally been allowed to get up, but only because the healer stated someone had come and requested to see her. The woman had helped her stand up long enough to pull on a clean yukata over her numerous bandages – her ribs had been cracked, two of her fingers broken, and her knee had been dislocated, in addition to her broken nose and chipped tooth, and for fear her ribs would move and puncture something, she had been forced into bed. 

She didn’t want to see anyone. It was likely Mitsume’s squad, or someone come on behalf of them from Sunagakure, to take her to the hidden village. Maybe a survivor of Konohagakure, given the morbid task of delivering death notices. 

She didn’t want to hear someone say what she already knew. She sat in her uncomfortable cot, eyes on the wall, as she waited for her so-called guest to get it over with and leave her to grieve. She didn’t look as the door creaked open, and someone quietly padded along the bare dirt floor to stand near her bedside. From the corner of her eye, she saw their hand twitch, and they reached up to brush the hair out of her face. 

With an unbelievable gentleness she didn’t deserve, they pressed her chin, and forced her to look at them. Green Konohagakure chunin vest, black shirt – black mask, crooked headband, shocking gray hair that stood wildly on end. 

Without thinking about her injuries, she leaped forward and wrapped her arms around him. The weight on her shoulders lifted, not entirely but enough that she could move to embrace the man she thought she’d never see again. He softly patted her back as he slipped his arms around her, while his own muscles trembled lightly – his fingers dug into her arms, contrary to how lightly he held her. 

“I thought,” She hadn’t even realized she had started to cry. “You were...I was sure you were...” 

“So was I,” His voice was raspy, but even. “But I’m not, I’m okay. You’re the one who’s hurt.”

He pulled back, enough to appraise her injuries with a critical stare in his usually tired eyes. 

“What happened?” 

“I tripped,” She choked on her sobs. “I was running, and I fell, and everyone just kept going over me.” 

He sighed, and pulled her back into his chest as her grief left her in the form of fat, stinging tears. One of his hands smoothed her wild, knotted hair as he rested his cheek against the side of her head. She thought, maybe, that she wasn’t the only one overcome with emotion, as she felt something wet against her scalp. 

Neither of them wanted to move, but as her sobs settled into wet gasps, she became acutely aware of how painful the position was, and against her own wishes, squirmed to try and ease the ache. He seemed to have forgotten, himself, and hurried to get her to lay back against the pillows used to prop her upright. She refused to be separated from him – although she didn’t need to worry, as he settled himself down on the edge of the bed, one foot on the ground, his other knee drawn against her hip. One of her hands found his, their fingers entangled over the sheets. 

“Get some rest, Sen,” He said softly as he pushed the hair from her eyes – unable to find her voice, she squeezed his hand a little tighter. “Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere. Not unless I’m with you.”


End file.
